Archaeologists find Viking burial site in Scotland

By The Associated Press
| 2:47 a.m.Oct. 19, 2011

Dr Hannah Cobb. co-director of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, poses at a press conference with a thousand year old Viking sword in Musselburgh Scotland, Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011. Archaeologists have discovered a Viking boat burial site believed to be over 1,000 years old in the Scottish Highlands. The 16-foot (five-meter) long grave contains the remains of a Viking who was buried with an ax, sword and spear along with a boat. It is the first intact boat burial site to have been discovered on mainland Britain. The burial site on the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula in western Scotland was discovered by a team of archeologists from Manchester and Leicester universities working with cultural heritage organization Archaeology Scotland and consultants CFA Archaeology. (AP Photo/Andrew Milligan/PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE
— AP

Dr Hannah Cobb. co-director of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project, poses at a press conference with a thousand year old Viking sword in Musselburgh Scotland, Tuesday Oct. 18, 2011. Archaeologists have discovered a Viking boat burial site believed to be over 1,000 years old in the Scottish Highlands. The 16-foot (five-meter) long grave contains the remains of a Viking who was buried with an ax, sword and spear along with a boat. It is the first intact boat burial site to have been discovered on mainland Britain. The burial site on the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula in western Scotland was discovered by a team of archeologists from Manchester and Leicester universities working with cultural heritage organization Archaeology Scotland and consultants CFA Archaeology. (AP Photo/Andrew Milligan/PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE
/ AP

This is a University of Manchester sketch made available Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 of a reconstruction drawing of a Viking Boat Burial. The 16-foot (five-meter) long grave contains the remains of a Viking who was buried with an ax, sword and spear along with a boat. It is the first intact boat burial site to have been discovered on mainland Britain. (AP Photo/Sarah Paris/University of Manchester/Ho) EDITORIAL USE ONLY— AP

+Read Caption

This is a University of Manchester sketch made available Wednesday Oct. 19, 2011 of a reconstruction drawing of a Viking Boat Burial. The 16-foot (five-meter) long grave contains the remains of a Viking who was buried with an ax, sword and spear along with a boat. It is the first intact boat burial site to have been discovered on mainland Britain. (AP Photo/Sarah Paris/University of Manchester/Ho) EDITORIAL USE ONLY
/ AP

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Archaeologists said Tuesday they have discovered the remains of a Viking chief buried with his boat, ax, sword and spear on a remote Scottish peninsula - one of the most significant Norse finds ever uncovered in Britain.

The 16-foot-long (5-meter-long) grave is the first intact site of its kind to have been discovered on mainland Britain and is believed to be more than 1,000 years old. Much of the wooden boat and the Viking bones have rotted away, but scraps of wood and hundreds of metal rivets that held the vessel together remain.

The archeologists also unearthed a shield boss - a circular piece of metal attached to the middle of a shield - and a bronze ring-pin buried with the Viking. They also found a knife, a whetstone to sharpen tools, and Viking pottery on the site on the Ardnamurchan peninsula on Scotland's west coast.

The boat and its contents were discovered by a team of archeologists from Manchester and Leicester universities working with the cultural heritage organization Archaeology Scotland and consultants CFA Archaeology.

Hannah Cobb, co-director of the project, said the discovery had exceeded expectations.

"A Viking boat burial is an incredible discovery, but in addition to that the artifacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain," she said.

The team of archeologists had been digging on the Ardnamurchan peninsula to learn more about social change in the area.

Vikings from Scandinavia made frequent raids on Scotland and what is now northeast England in the 8th and 9th centuries, and many Vikings set up settlements in the area.